Declines in cardiovascular mortality have stagnated in the United States since 2011. There is growing concern that these patterns reflect worsening cardiovascular health in younger adults. However, little is known about how the burden of acute cardiovascular hospitalizations and mortality have changed in this population. Changes in cardiovascular hospitalizations and mortality among adults aged 25-64 years were evaluated, overall and by community-level income.
Using the National Inpatient Sample, age-standardized annual hospitalization and inhospital mortality rates for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, and ischemic stroke were determined among adults aged 25-64 years. Quasi-Poisson and quasi-binominal regression models were fitted to compare outcomes between individuals residing in low- and higher-income communities.
Between 2008 and 2019, age-standardized hospitalization rates for AMI increased among younger adults from 155.0 (95% CI 154.6, 155.4) per 100,000 to 160.7 (160.3, 161.1) per 100,000 (absolute change +5.7 [5.0, 6.3], p<0.001). Heart failure hospitalizations also increased (165.3 [164.8, 165.7] to 225.3 [224.8, 225.8], absolute change +60.0 (59.3, 60.6), p<0.001), as ischemic stroke hospitalizations (76.3 [76.1, 76.7] to 108.1 [107.8, 108.5], absolute change +31.7 (31.2, 32.2), p<0.001). Across all conditions, hospitalizations rates were significantly higher among younger adults residing in low-income compared with higher-income communities, and disparities did not narrow between groups. In-hospital mortality decreased for all conditions over the study period.
There was an alarming increase in cardiovascular hospitalizations among younger adults in the US from 2008 to 2019, and disparities between those residing in low- and higher-income communities did not narrow.

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